Tag: Sony Online Entertainment

Sony Grandfathers In Existing Everquest II Characters


Good news, everyone! Back when Sony Online Entertainment announced that the two Everquest II services would be merged, players were left wondering how extra characters would be dealt with once the slot restriction went into effect. For players with accounts on both services, which characters would be available and which would be locked? What if a player stopped subscribing? If your character is created after December 6th, you’re out of luck. However, Dave Georgesson announced that existing characters (created before 12/6) will not be subject to race/class locks, even if the account is silver.

*Every* character that was created before 12/06/2011 at 12:01 am will be grandfathered in without race or class restriction. This means that regardless of your membership level, you will be able to play any character created before 12/6 without paying for race- or class-pack unlocks.

A welcome announcement for returning Everquest II players. In addition, if you spent Station Cash on race/class packs after the free to play transition, but before the announcement above (12/8), Sony will be offering refunds for your purchase.

(Source: EQII Forums)

Everquest Channels Jagex: Sends Cheaters Final Warning


Players who partake in cheating are hereby put on notice: stop now. This isn’t an idle warning. We have quietly invested significant behind the scenes effort into detecting cheaters quickly and accurately. The vast majority of players enjoy the game on a fair and even playing field. Those who gain unfair advantage over others will not be tolerated.

Everquest is among the elders in our list of MMOs and while the game has seen updates over the years to allow for more a more casual friendly experience, the game still stands as one of the hardest on the market. Unfortunately, the engine and the systems in place have aged far in their years, and the Everquest team has a lot on their plates to deal with hackers (real hackers exploiting the engine, not your run of the mill bug abusers). Well, on the official forums, SOE Piestro has unsheathed his sword (pictured above) and issued a final warning to cheaters: Stop now, or face the +5 banhammer of troll smite.

Ten Ton Hammer published an incredibly in-depth article earlier this year discussing the epidemic that is hacking in Everquest, which you can read here. Scripts and bots that allow players to warp themselves and NPCs, despawn bosses, and more. At the end of the interview, we’re left with a tease that investigations into cheating would ramp up once Veil of Alaris was completed.

Best of luck to the Everquest team in fighting this never ending threat.

DC Universe F2P Fun Facts, And Vanguard Free To Play?


If tweets carried a physical representation, the updates by John Smedley today would look not unlike grasping critics by the hair and smearing their faces in Sony’s statistics. Earlier today, Smedley tweeted a few of DC Universe’s accomplishments since its move to free to play:

  • Over 100% pre-f2p concurrent users.
  • 6% growth daily.
  • 700% increase in revenue (47% PC / 53% PS3)
  • Over 85% of daily logins are returning players.

Additionally, a user by the name of mupchu777 tweeted to John Smedley: “how about making vanguard saga of Heroes ftp… If not just kill the game already.” Mr. Smedley tweeted a response, “stay tuned.”

Cryptic.

New Everquest II Matrix And F2P Details


When Sony turned Everquest II into two services, they did so for a number of reasons, not least of which being a negative push back from the (at the time) current population of subscribers who did not want even more cash shop interference. And for what it’s worth, those of us on the Extended servers should be thanking these tough defenders, because when Sony merges the two services in December, those of us on the Extended servers will see a notable boost in what content we have available to us with a simple .

Gold players (subscribers) will now be able to access all races and all classes, according to the new free to play matrix. As many of you know, Platinum (the $200 yearly plan) is gone to anyone except recurring subscribers. You can find even more information on the transition here, while the EQ2 Wire has posted information that recurring subscribers will also be treated to monthly Station Cash injections into their accounts. Sony will also be discontinuing service with Live Gamer, the player to player auction house for RMT, around this time.

Coming December, there is a new way to spell Everquest II, and it’s l-o-d-s of e-m-o-n-e, and what’s that spell? Loads of money!

Probably.

New Player Experience: Is Vanguard Prepping For Free To Play?


Here’s something you didn’t expect to hear today: A Vanguard content patch was released. Sony Online Entertainment has been making relatively good on its past promise to begin supporting the title, and has unleashed a new dungeon as well as a new player experience. For starters, corpse recovery has been removed, making death less frustrating. Additionally, the experience required to attain each level has been scaled back, as well as increased loot drops (permanent) and the “golden path,” a leveling guide that assists players in finding areas to gain experience.

So is Vanguard in the preparation stages for free to play? It would certainly seem so, what with laying down the carpet and rose petals for the influx of players that the change would bring. We’ll be keeping an eye on Sony for the time being.

LiveGamer, Sony Online Entertainment Part Ways


According to the Live Gamer website, the two companies have ended their partnership and the service will shut down on December 14.

After careful consideration and review, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and Live Gamer (LG) have mutually made the decision to discontinue auction services currently available in EverQuest II (EQII), Free Realms and Vanguard. Beginning on December 14, 2011, SOE will suspend exchange services for all three games. For EQII, SOE will merge the LG exchange-based servers with its existing game servers, specifically Vox will merge with Nagafen and The Bazaar with Freeport. LG continues to be a valuable partner to SOE for a variety of e-commerce services. SOE and LG will be updating the FAQs from time-to-time to help answer questions you have regarding the discontinuance of the auction services.

As stated in the announcement, more information is to come.

Splitting Everquest 2 Services Bad Idea, Merging In December


Let’s be honest, who among us did not see this service merger coming? Back when Sony announced Everquest 2 Extended, and how the game would be its own product split from Everquest 2, I questioned how long it would be before the Everquest 2 community either filtered into the service or filtered out completely, and Sony merged the two. Dave Georgeson states that this is due to Sony reviewing their other free to play games, but the factor of developing two separate versions of the same game must have had some factor.

As a result, EQ2X will be updated to bring gold subscription in line with what live players expect, losing restrictions on classes and races. Silver is being reduced to $5 from $10. Platinum, the $200 yearly membership, will be discontinued while anyone still with time left will live out the rest of their paid time without automatic renewal. In a surprising move, Georgeson revealed that power items will be removed from the cash shop. Potions, Rez scrolls, mastercrafted gear, etc, and a vote will be taken with the community as to how, or rather if, these items will be reintroduced.

This is great for people who have allowed their Everquest 2 subscriptions to lapse, but didn’t want to pay the money to transfer to Freeport and did not want to create a new character and start new. Everquest 2 changes to free to play in early December.

DC Universe: Apparently Subscribers Wanted Priority Login


I have an itching feeling that the super servers for DC Universe were envisioned, developed, and either implemented or too far along to cancel when Sony received the green light to take the game free to play, because as Crimecraft has shown us: Merging servers to accommodate the subscriber population will cause all hell to break loose when the traffic suddenly rises 1000% (according to John Smedley) and the servers buckle like a cheap TV dinner tray. Luckily, Sony has been working around the clock to beef up the megaserver performance to accomodate more simultaneous players, and while European players have been having a bit more luck with open server slots, North American players are being subjected to constant server queues.

Not to mention, subscribers weren’t exactly happy that they were being forced to wait in the same line as their new found allies and opponents. Sorry, free players, but login priority for paying players is hardly newsworthy. On the plus side, if you want priority login, all it takes is a one time payment of five bucks. In an update rolled out, Sony added server queue priority for premium and legendary players, with legendary receiving the fastest queue time.

DC Universe’s Halloween event (spooktacular) has been extended until November 14th due to server issues.

  • Priority Queueing for Legendary and Premium players is now available.
  • Legendary Players will have the fastest queue time.

DC Universe F2P Just Too Popular, Server Down


Someone better call Queen Latifah, because DC Universe players are bringing down the house. Literally! The US servers were in a state of limbo yesterday, going up and down as players flooded in to see Superman break Bane’s back, or vice versa. In response, Deadmeat has posted an announcement on the DC Universe forums:

As folks have seen we have had some major issues today keeping our US Servers up and running.  We are working very hard to correct the problem and we will be keeping the servers down until we can deploy new software to help us fix the issues.  The response to our new Free to Play model has been overwhelming (literally) and we are very excited about all the new players in the game.  We are working hard to make sure DC Universe Online is the best experience possible.

Hopefully Sony can get this fixed in a manner that does not involve the ritualistic sacrifice of whoever suggested merging servers right before a free to play transition. Or the sacrifice of a blogger who questions the viability of said sacrifice.

John Smedley on Everquest, Free To Play, Vita, and More


For the record I tried to hold off on the “are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I make no promises. In an interview with Gamespot, Sony Online Entertainment’s President John Smedley sat down to talk about Everquest, DC Universe, and more. Most important, Smedley mentioned that Sony has no intent on shuttering Everquest at any point in the foreseeable future.

 I look at EverQuest the way I look at Dungeons & Dragons. We’re on version 4 of D&D and people are still playing in droves. Look at Magic: The Gathering…15 years I think of an awesome game. So we are big believers that this franchise is going to be there for a very long time, and we’re investing in it a lot.

Sony has quite the load on their hands, with upcoming MMOs Planetside 2, Everquest Next, and the transition of DC Universe to free to play later this month. The developer has also shown interest in revitalizing their much-neglected MMO Vanguard, as well as a heavy hand in development for Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures. In the same interview, Smedley also confirmed that SOE plans on utilizing the Vita for its own products, but would not comment on specifics. All I know is that if Everquest is ported over to Vita, I can kiss my productivity and wallet goodbye.

When asked about the changing environment of the MMO pricing model, Smedley commented that although the market is shifting toward free to play, the subscription model definitely still has its place, especially with The Old Republic coming this December. In essence, the subscription isn’t going anywhere until the fat lady sings.

This is good news, especially after Ten Ton Hammer published a rather in-depth article on the issue of cheating in Everquest. You can read up on that here.